The saying may be “flat out like a lizard drinking,” but this python spotted in a native garden in Western Australia’s Midwest has displayed its flexibility reaching into a bird bath almost 60 centimetres off the ground.
Jeanie Lennard said she thought something was out of the ordinary when the birds on her bush block started “making a bit of a racket”.
“I turned around and went, ‘Oh my God! What is that?’ And, yeah, it was a python,” she said.
“Instead of getting one of the water sources on the ground, he’d stretched his neck right up and was having this huge drink out of the birdbath saucer, upsetting all the little birdies.”
The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions identified the reptile as a south-west carpet python.
A spokeswoman described its action as a reaching technique where the animal’s body weight is supported across its muscle mass.
Ms Lennard said she and her husband liked living with the harmless reptiles on their bush block, but it did take a bit of getting used to early on.
“I used to ring the snake handler and get them to move them. I sort of didn’t like them too close to the house. They made me feel nervous,” she said.
“But over 13 to 14 years, I’ve got really used to them, and I don’t mind them.
“I went to pick up my garden hose the other day, and I went, ‘Oh, hang on, my garden hose is not black.’ And it was right next to a big rosemary bush, and there was a python all straight through the rosemary bush.”
Ms Lennard said the snakes were “harmless”.
“They’re slow moving,” she said.
“Hopefully, they eat a lot of mice.”
Ms Lennard says as well as “plenty of pythons”, her 10-hectare block is a haven for birds, bobtails, lizards, microbats, owls and even an echidna.
“He lives underneath one of our sea containers,” she said.
Ms Lennard said she had shared the photographs of her thirsty python to educate people.
“Not all snakes are bad, and pythons are just living in the environment and not hurting anybody,” she said.
“So, hopefully, people won’t automatically kill snakes when they see them.”
